Jeg har læst og hørt en masse bøger om videnskab. De fleste reflekterer også over livet og religion, nok fordi det er af amerikanske forfattere, hvor antividenskabelige religiøse retninger er i direkte åben konflikt med naturvidenskaben helt ned på folkeskoleniveau.
Her er et par quotes fra Lawrence Krauss' A Universe From Nothing, som er meget repræsentativt for den måde, jeg ser livet, universet og alt det andet på.
- “The universe is the way it is, whether we like it or not. The existence or nonexistence of a creator is independent of our desires. A world without God or purpose may seem harsh or pointless, but that alone doesn’t require God to actually exist.”
- "We need to live our experience as it is and with our eyes open. The universe is the way it is, whether we like it or not.”
- “In this sense, science, as physicist Steven Weinberg has emphasized, does not make it impossible to believe in God, but rather makes it possible to not believe in God.”
- "The declaration of a First Cause still leaves open the question, “Who created the creator?” After all, what is the difference between arguing in favor of an eternally existing creator versus an eternally existing universe without one?”
Og så lidt fra Carl Sagans Cosmos
- “There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That’s perfectly all right: it’s the aperture to finding out what’s right. Science is a self-correcting process.”
- “Civilization is a product of the cerebral cortex.”
Basalt set:
- Vi er et biprodukt af de fysiske love og religion er et biprodukt af evolution.
- Naturvidenskab er en selv-korrigerende proces, hvor fejltagelser og forkerte hypoteser bliver ændret. Den er i sin essens helt åbensindet.
- Gud som first cause er unødigt kompliceret. Hvis Gud ingen årsag har, og har skabt universet, så er det jo et trin ekstra. Universet kan ligeså godt være uden årsag så. Der er ingen grund til at indføre en ekstra first cause.
Og så lige et afsindigt godt citat fra de sidste linjer af Charles Darwins Origin of the Species:
“Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”
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Det var lige lidt rant fra min side - vi behøver ikke være enige :)